In his 1950 Nobel Prize acceptance speech, William Faulkner lamented the dearth of "problems of the spirit" in modern literature and pointed out the importance of "the old universal truths...love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice" in weaving a successful, meaningful story. Faulkner placed these human traits into a genus all their own and labeled it "the human heart in conflict with itself." Part of the reason Arthur Miller's play "Death of a Salesman" remains relevant more than fifty years after its first publication is that the story embodies all of Faulkner's "universal truths." The Loman family is the archetype of the human heart in conflict with itself.

At first glance, Willy Loman is a selfish, unloving man. His pride in his son Biff's athletic endeavors is less due to love than it is to vicarious self-validation, and he virtually ignores his younger and less agile son, Happy. "You're my foundation and my support, Linda" is probably the closest he's come to actually saying "I love you" to his wife in years (1640). And, as Linda darns her stockings until there is no more original material to repair, Willy presents boxes of brand-new silk

The fact that Willy carries on an extramarital affair further illustrates his conflicted view of the concept of love. He sleeps with a receptionist in Boston to quell his loneliness; the physical contact with another human being makes him feel attached to the world for a few brief moments. While Linda listens to him and supports him and loves him unconditionally, the receptionist belittles him for being self-centered and screeches at him to give her a promised "two boxes of size nine sheers" (1695). Once the physical act is over, Willy is again faced with the fact that sex and love are not necessarily interrelated.

Upon closer examination, however, Willy's conflict of the heart becomes more apparent. Willy is a man of the 1950s. He is steered by pre-feminist gender roles that dictate acceptable ways for men to show love, the cardinal rule being that physical affection means nothing if a man cannot provide for his family. As he struggles to remain successful in a changing business environment, Willy worries that his failures will be translated by Linda as a lack of love. "I get the feeling that I'll never sell anything again," he says, "that I won't make a living for you, or a business, a business for the boys" (1651).

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Approximate Word count = 1845
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)